The surveillance capitalism model is now powering elections across the globe. Facebook was recently praised by the American Civil Liberties Union for disallowing ad microtargeting by race and gender to certain categories such as housing and jobs. Curiously, a category not on the list? Election campaigns.

A recent article from Das Magazin in EU (link to Vice News version of story below) highlighted the role of Big Data and surveillance capitalism in both the recent Brexit and Trump victories. The campaigns both used data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which itself was bankrolled by the most successful Wall St. hedge fund manager of all-time.

Is Big Data destroying democracy? What can be done about this? Are there any organizations working on this issue? Do other people have different perspectives? This seems like a novel form of tyranny.

Psychologist Michal Kosinski developed a method to analyze people in minute detail based on their Facebook activity. Did a similar tool help propel Donald Trump to victory? Two reporters from Zurich-based Das Magazin went data-gathering.​